By Maryam Hassan The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has opposed a suit seeking to remove the Ajami (Arabic) inscriptions on naira not...
By Maryam Hassan
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has opposed a suit seeking
to remove the Ajami (Arabic) inscriptions on naira notes.
It told the Federal High Court it would cost a ‘colossal sum
of money’ to discard the existing notes and print new ones without Ajami.
The CBN said Ajami is not a symbol or mark of Islam but an
inscription to aid non-English speakers who are literate in and use Ajami for
trade.
It made the submission in a counter-affidavit to a suit
filed by a Lagos-based lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, before Justice Mohammed
Liman.
Mr Malcolm argued the Arabic inscriptions on the naira notes
portray Nigeria as an Islamic state, contrary to the country’s constitutional
status of a secular state.
He contended this violates sections 10 and 55 of the
Nigerian Constitution, which make the country a secular state.
Section 10 reads: “The government of the Federation or of a
state shall not adopt any religion as state religion.”
He prayed the court to restrain the CBN from “further
approving, printing and issuing naira notes with Arabic inscriptions, bearing
in mind that Nigeria is a secular state.”
He further prayed the court to order the CBN to replace the
Arabic inscriptions with either English language, which is the country’s
official language, or any of Nigeria’s three main indigenous languages – Hausa,
Yoruba or Igbo.
But in its counter-affidavit deposed to by Abiola Lawal, the
CBN argued that “the Ajami inscriptions on some of the country’s currencies do
not connote any religious statements or Arabian alignment.”
The apex bank maintained that contrary to Omirhobo’s claim,
the Arabic inscriptions were not a threat to Nigeria’s secular status.
It said: “The inscriptions on the country’s currencies do
not and at no time have they threatened the secular statehood of the nation or
have they violated the Constitution of Nigeria, as every design and inscription
was finalised with the approval of the relevant government bodies.”
It explained “Ajami inscriptions” on the naira notes dates
back to the colonial era “and they do not imply that Arabic is an official
language in Nigeria.”
The apex bank said: “The naira notes retained the
inscriptions with Ajami since 1973 when the name of the Nigerian currency was
changed to naira from pounds.
“The Ajami was inscribed on the country’s currency by the
colonialists to aid those without Western education in certain parts of the
country, who, back then, constituted a larger part of the populace.
“The Ajami is not a symbol or mark of Islam but an
inscription to aid the populace uneducated in Western education in ease of
trade.”
It reasoned further that removing the Arabic inscriptions
from the naira notes “would cost the tax-paying Nigerians and the Federal
Government colossal sum of money to discard the existing naira notes and print
new ones in satisfaction of the plaintiff.”
Hearing in the suit comes up on Tuesday before Justice
Liman.
The judge will also be hearing a similar suit filed by
Omirhobo against the Nigerian Army, seeking the removal of Arabic inscriptions
from the logo of the Nigerian Army.
Like the CBN, the Army has also opposed Omirhobo’s suit and
urged the court to throw it out.
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